Note: This is a poll for users to express their opinions, NOT to or to be used to object, challenge, harass, or subject a change to any parties involved in Spiral Knights.
Do you think the mission interface helps you to understand the game system better? (as in a few aspects such as gameplay, economics, social, objectives, etc.) Why do you think so?
Thank you for spending your time taking this poll! I really appreciate it!
Thanks for your response! I forgot to mention this:
For experienced players, when you say that the mission interface does not help the newbies in aspects stated above, do you mean the newbies realize the lack of guidance themselves, or they are unaware of it until some problems are brought up? (problems as in facing types of damage, landmark of Haven, location of NPCs, etc.)
In my opinion, it teaches you about the importance of armour vs. certain monster types, but I find it rather lacking in the more advanced techniques, like shield-bumping, shield-canceling, not using your full combo if it launches you into danger, etc.
On the social and economic side of things, it gives a good explanation of crafting and how the AH works; although I can't say anything about the Friends and Guilds being explained - I might have skimped over that tutorial since I've been a member long before missions came out.
Overall... ehn. It's a start, but Three Rings needs someone who's played the game thoroughly from noob to 5* to explain what things you need to know to succeed in Spiral Knights. As it is, it seems the explanations were written from a very technical standpoint. (ie, this is how it SHOULD work, not neccesarily how it actually does.)
So, you mean that if we couple up this mission interface with original guidance from experienced players, it would be perfect for newbies? If that is so, thanks for voicing out your opinion!
I think it's fine for the missions to remain purely technical - i.e. how energy works, how to craft, where the NPCs are, what damage types and status mean, how to use AH interface, how to use emote, etc.
Some advanced knowledge you mentioned (e.g. how to succeed) should be discovered by the player himself (or by asking other players in-game or in this forum, if the player want to).
You're all falling for Three Rings' covert feedback request! >:O
Sorry for this misunderstanding, but I, in any way, am NOT representing the Three Rings. I'm also not an admin. Even if I'm an admin, you can see the word "Admin" in my profile picture.
Secondly, this is merely a poll for my own use...
I am just a knight like you. I had an intention to help out newbies from the very start. So when I gained enough experience here and there, I decided to start a non-profit tour guide for newbies. I took them to the Clockworks if I had to. I even gave out Christmas presents. But that's before the time when we have missions. Now I see that the missions do nearly everything in introducing newbies in the game. I gave up my touring and do whatever knights would do. I don't know if newbies really need any guidance or knowledge from others ever since. But recently I start to doubt... That's why I made this poll, to see if I should continue my efforts, or simply forget about it.
I hope this clears out our misconception.
I think some of the missions may help newcomers, such as the mission that explains how and where to craft. Other missions like the mission telling you where to shop is fairly useless. If newbies want to shop they'll figure it out pretty quickly.
To me, things that should be in the missions are the things that set this game apart from the rest of the other MMOs out there. Specifically:
I've been playing on-off for several weeks now, and I think that the missions do a pretty good job of teaching the newcomers the basics (provided they read the conversations of course). It is some of the more advanced things like shield bumping, how to fight effectively, how to earn cr efficiently, and basically the stuff that Twiddle said, that are not very clear. I think it's ok for stuff like advanced battling techniques to not be taught in-game (they can go and look it all up in the wiki if they really want to play the game well), but it is especially confusing for newcomers to not know how to use the party interface. It took me a while before I figured out how to use that. Or it could just be me. :P
I think the other stuff that should be taught in-game are gate creation (like depositing what minerals will result in what gate) and the party interface. Otherwise, the missions are enough for newcomers to learn the basics.
I've been playing BEFORE missions were added, and I must admit, adding them was a good idea. It kept me in the game (And fueled my addiction, none the less!) even further than I was enjoying it beforehand.
I swear, the game used to be a grinding fest to get the decent armor you need to progress... But now, the Missions system does that, and brings in a nice storyline (I've been drifting in and out of it, but I do get what is going on here) into the mix.
As far as helping out newcomers, I've played through the tutorial levels (New knight for the win) to see what others see, and I must admit, it really does work well to bring more players into playing the game. That, and since missions provide all the equipment you need (Including recipes later on) for minimum requirements, I do think it works out well for everyone.
There is a lot more it should teach.
Off the top of my head:
-How to use trade chat (/join 2, /2 )
-What the AH times mean (very short = under 5 mins, but resets ever bid e.t.c)
People get to 5* without knowing this stuff which is appalling. People are too lazy to use the wiki, so more in-game help would be useful for them.
Mission Interface is very helpful for newbies. There were a couple of things that I had no idea about until when the mission interface came out, and I've been a 5 star for like.... 6-7-8-9 months now.... But now SK is getting boring..... ._.
I have played since June 2011 and when I first started the game, it took me a long time to understand energy and how it worked. And it kept me close to quitting at some points because I didnt understand what was going on. Im sure I wasnt the only one that didnt think the system is confusing, and thats why many people quit or didnt even make it to the first clockworks terminal on depth 4.
The introduction of mission systems definitely helps alot, I can see alot of new people understanding whats going on now that its explained. But it has its flaws and there are still many subjects left untouched. I think the tutorial missions need improvment as I also believe people are simply skipping them and then later not understanding what they are supposed to do next. They supply you with two star armor up to the Rank 4 missions but anyone who didnt listen to the crafting tutorial and is now stuck at the Hall of Heroes for 3* wont have a clue whats going on.
This new Mission system does help out much with the most basic workings of the game. It would've been a great help to me if there had been one when I first started. After these very few basics, there's a whole lot more to be discovered still whether it be through existing veterans or self-taught through the Wiki and experimentation (or a healthy combination of both).
I wonder if it would be helpful if the above resources were mentioned at some point in the Missions. Do you think it would be helpful if the Missions pointed to the Wiki for advanced information?
Yeah, it would help me learn if i was a newb. Well... Thats assuming I am a patient newb who doesn't beg for "hlp" because I have no CE.
ofc I'm 5* from August 2011, so theres no need.
They need to explain that minerals are shared among the party. I've met more than a few full 5* players that still don't know this.
Im not new at all, been on and off for a while though and never really got into the forums. But, one thing they should do is get an npc or something else that would stand in town square who would activate the wiki while in game so that they can look up stuff without having to ask other players all the details. though it may not stop alot of the questions asked it would certainly make information easier to obtain for newer players, due to the fact that alot of them just skip through tutorial since you are not really required to read the stuff in them. Ive actually went through the tutorial with newer players before, and i had to tell them things about the game they would have known if they had read the signs, explaining things isnt my strong point but when it comes to new players i think they should at least be required to read the signs and actually learn to play somewhat from it.
I think a lot of people know this, but everyone secretly wants the biggest one :P
Thanks for spending your time posing your reply! Now I think I know what to do...
We now understand that the mission system is a very basic and technical thing, and it's not wrong being so. We only need to give additional guidance to the newbies, by ourselves.
So, I decide to continue on my tour! And what's more, Ga-Ri heard about my non-profit tour, and combined with his idea of an advanced tactic training for players, we decided to form two guilds for this purpose! One for my tour, and another one for training. Without him, I have no idea how I could expand my touring agency (and his tactic training).
Anyone interested to help out newbies and show them the way around can volunteer to join my guild, and I'll inform to you once the guild is established. Also, the other guild would also need recruitment, so by the meantime we're open for volunteers.
(The reason why I'm not posting this in guild recruitment is because we don't have a fixed name for the guilds yet. I'll post the details once we get everything sorted out.)
I've met many new players not knowing all the basic stuff covered by the "contact" and "visit" missions. I have told many of them to redo those missions.
I think most of them just click right through them without reading any. Perhaps OOO should change the conversation interface again... move the text up from the bottom into the middle and use larger font maybe. Or have the NPC ask some questions at the end of it, and fail the mission until the player can answer correctly! (a CAPTCHA against the attention-deficit :P)